1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to identifying users on a network, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for identifying households for online measurement and dynamic content delivery.
2. Definitions/Description of the Related Art
Household
The US Census Bureau defines a household as, “A household includes all the persons who occupy a housing unit. A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building and which have direct access from the outside of the building or through a common hall. The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated persons who share living arrangements.” (See http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_HSD310200.htm).
Internet Connected Household (ICH)
An internet connected household is a household that uses the Internet at home. The US Census Bureau reports there are 81,939,000 households that use the Internet at home (internet connected households) in the United States. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, October 2009.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
An ISP is a company that supplies Internet connectivity to home and business customers. ISPs support one or more forms of Internet access, ranging from modem dial-up to DSL (digital subscriber line) and cable modem broadband service to dedicated T1/T3 lines to satellite or wireless access.
Regional Internet Registry
A regional Internet registry (RIR) is an organization that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources within a particular region of the world. Internet number resources include IP (internet protocol) addresses and autonomous system (AS) numbers.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) delegates Internet resources to the RIRs who, in turn, follow their regional policies to delegate resources to their customers, which include Internet service providers and end-user organizations.
Collectively, the RIRs participate in the Number Resource Organization (NRO), formed as a body to represent their collective interests, undertake joint activities, and coordinate their activities globally. The NRO has entered into an agreement with ICANN for the establishment of the Address Supporting Organisation (ASO), which undertakes coordination of global IP addressing policies within the ICANN framework. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Internet_registry).
Internet Protocol Address (IP)
An IP address is a logical address for a network adapter. Generally speaking, an IP address uniquely identifies computers on a TCP/IP network (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol network).
An IP address can be private—for use on a local area network (LAN)—or public—for use on the Internet or other wide area network (WAN). IP addresses can be determined statically (assigned to a computer by a system administrator) or dynamically (assigned by another device on the network on demand).
Two IP addressing standards are in use today. The IPv4 standard is most familiar to people and supported everywhere on the Internet, but the newer IPv6 standard is planned to replace it and is starting to be deployed.
IPv4 addresses consist of four bytes (32 bits). Each byte of an IP address is known as an octet. Octets can take any value between 0 and 255. Various conventions exist for the numbering and use of IP addresses. (See http://compnetworking.about.com/od/workingwithipaddresses/g/ip-addresses.htm).
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
TCP/IP is the communication protocol for the Internet. A computer communication protocol is a description of the rules computers must follow to communicate with each other. TCP/IP defines how electronic devices (like computers) should be connected to the Internet, and how data should be transmitted between them. Each computer must have an IP address before it can connect to the Internet and each IP packet must have an address before it can be sent to another computer. (See http://www.w3schools.com/tcpip/tcpip_intro.asp).
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol provides a standard for Web browsers and servers to communicate. HTTP is an application layer network protocol built on top of TCP. HTTP clients (such as Web browsers) and servers communicate via HTTP request and response messages. (See http://compnetworking.about.com/od/networkprotocols/g/bldef_http.htm).